Orioles 4, Twins 2: Sweeping Away the Misery

[Ted Schwerzler]

Everyone keeps saying it's hard to hit home runs at Camden Yards now. It doesn't seem that hard to hit home runs at Camden Yards. Maybe it even needs to be harder.

Image courtesy of © Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Pablo López 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K (87 pitches, 55 strikes, 13 whiffs)
Home Runs: None
Bottom 3 WPA: Griffin Jax (-.365), Steven Okert (-.232), Byron Buxton (-.137)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Pitchers of a Different Ilk
Scheduled to face former Twins prospect Tyler Wells today, Minnesota instead was opposed by Albert Suárez, with Wells going on the injured list due to elbow inflammation. Wednesday’s start was Suárez’s first appearance in a major-league game since 2017, and the first time he was making a start since 2016. They don't make big-league hurlers much more different from one another than Suárez and Pablo López.

Despite not having much of a track record and struggling mightily during his brief Triple-A showing this year, Suárez acquitted himself in the first inning. Blowing pitches past Minnesota leadoff hitter Edouard Julien, it was as though the Twins hitter couldn’t touch his fastball. Ryan Jeffers and Byron Buxton went down on softly-hit fly balls, and Suárez kept it simple with nine straight fastballs. For whatever reason, Minnesota could not adjust.

Gunnar Henderson stepped in against López, having homered in back-to-back games, and decided to make it a third straight. Before Minnesota had recorded an out, they trailed 1-0. Minnesota’s ace got out of the inning without allowing any more damage, but once again, the Twins trailed early.

Suárez Continues to Shove
Despite having been out of affiliated baseball for years, and looking like organizational fodder at Triple-A to start this season, Suárez showed up ready to compete against the Twins today. Rocco Baldelli has watched his lineup be largely lethargic for the duration of the season, but Wednesday in Baltimore was a new low.

Velocity has long been a significant part of the game at the highest level. What Suárez flashed against the Twins was impressive, but his 95-96-mph fastball shouldn’t have overwhelmed a competent big-league lineup. It did, anyway.

Through four innings, Suarez had generated 10 whiffs on his four-seam fastball, and 13 total in just 56 pitches. A pair of doubles from José Miranda and Alex Kirilloff were the only positive outcomes in the early portion of the contest, and as the Twins have done for a while now, they stranded both on the bases. The gameplan at the plate seemed to be nonexistent. It might be time for both David Popkins and Rudy Hernandez to find themselves in hot water.

Pablo Does His Job
After a pair of victories for Baltimore, the Twins needed their ace to be a stopper. While Henderson did get the solo home run leading off the game, the Minnesota starter settled in thereafter. While he didn’t seem to overmatch Orioles hitters at the same confounding level that Suárez did against Minnesota, he continued to set them down.

Following a Ryan Jeffers hit by pitch, and move to second base after a wild pitch, Baltimore countered by bringing in former Minnesota reliever Danny Coulombe. (He could still be in the Twins bullpen, but that’s a rehashed frustration for a different time.) Coulombe got Kirilloff to ground out and turned over the inning.

López got Jackson Holliday and Henderson both on whiffs to start the sixth inning. Then Adley Rutschman stepped in and got acquainted with Austin Martin in center field. With Buxton operating as the designated hitter today, it was Martin patrolling the deep green. Ranging to his right and diving, Martin came up with a big catch and sent his teammates back to the dish

Martin then found himself in a position to impact the game offensively during the next half-inning. Manuel Margot took a one-out walk, and running on Martin’s base hit to left center, Tommy Watkins got aggressive and sent him in to tie things up at one. Martin came through in the field, then immediately knotted things up in the top of the 7th inning.

Despite looking utterly lost in his first two at-bats of the game, Farmer lined a 2-2 single to left field that allowed Martin to score from second base. Martin’s speed is a significant part of his game, and going on contact with two outs, there was never a doubt as to whether he’d be sent home. López was in line for a well-earned win.

Short-Lived Lead
Despite López being at just 87 pitches through six innings, Baldelli opted for his bullpen to take over starting the seventh. Steven Okert was the first man up, and after getting Austin Hays to fly out, he gave up a big fly to Anthony Santander tying the game at two.

With an off day next on the docket for the Twins, and both Brock Stewart and Griffin Jax fresh in the bullpen, having your ace go seven would have been ideal, and not allowing him to start that frame was a frustrating decision by the Twins skipper. Stewart came on to bail out Okert needing one out with runners on the corners. Getting Jordan Westburg on strikes, he preserved the tie.

Sent to the Orioles in the Jorge López trade, Yennier Canó came on for Baltimore against his former organization. He got Jeffers to ground out, and a Buxton strikeout pushed the struggling slugger's strikeout-to-walk ratio on the season to 22/1. Kirilloff drew a walk to make things interesting, but Miranda went down swinging and Minnesota was going to need the ninth inning. Stewart got Minnesota over the hump, but the lineup again needed to come through.

Mullins Ends It
Ending López’s day early and turning the ball over to the bullpen, Baldelli had committed to Stewart and Griffin Jax to finish the first nine innings. Stewart did his job, while the lineup failed to produce another run. In the bottom of the ninth, Cedric Mullins called game.

Mullins finishing them off neatly rounded out the narrative for this series. From his run-saving catch in the first inning of the first game, Mullins symbolized the sheer superiority of the Orioles at this moment in time throughout the set. The two-run shot secured the sweep for Baltimore, and Minnesota was set to return home after going a terrible 2-5 on their road trip.

Notes
Max Kepler, who has been on the injured list dealing with a bone bruise, is starting a rehab assignment with the St. Paul Saints on Friday. The Twins Triple-A club is in Indianapolis this week, so he could presumably rejoin the big league club sometime early next week if things go well.

After DFA’ing Michael Tonkin earlier this week, the Twins found out they have lost him on waivers to the New York Mets. New York is who Minnesota claimed Tonkin from, and to make a spot for him on the roster, they DFA’d another former Twins prospect, Tyler Jay.

What’s Next? 
The Twins return home on Thursday with their final scheduled off day of the month on tap. Welcoming a pair of divisional foes to Target Field, both the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox represent beatable teams for Minnesota to use as a get-right spot. Needing to turn the tide of their start, it’s getting late early for Baldelli’s club should things continue.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

View full article

[tarheeltwinsfan]

I feel bad for Pablo. The Twins need to reboot their season. 

[singlesoverwalks]

This isn't the latest gif, but sometimes you just have to express how you feel.

[LA Vikes Fan]

Bad loss. Griffin Jax is a good reliever but a lousy closer. He stunk at it last year and he stinking at it this year. He's a good seventh and eighth inning reliever and that's where he should stay. Whatever it is a closer needs to be successful in high stress situations he just doesn't have.

I think that the best closers types on this roster are Brock Stewart and Louie Varland. Send Bowers to the DFA wire or send Funderburk down, call up SWR to take the fifth spot in the rotation and put Louie in the bullpen to close.

I have no solutions to offer for this lineup other than Miranda, Jeffers, and Martin should be playing every day and perhaps hitting next to each other. They are the only three that don't look completely overmatched at the plate with the possible exception of Julien, and Margot can at least draw the occasional walk. Any thought that Miranda doesn't field well enough to play needs to go out the window because he's one of the few guys who seems to be able to actually hit major league pitching. If it were up to me, I would strongly consider putting out a lineup for the next game that went Martin, Julian, Jeffers, Miranda, Buxton, Margot, and it doesn't really matter after that because all the rest of them stink.

[MMMordabito]

[Parfigliano]

Hard to hit HRs in Balt.  Easy to hit HRs off Twins pitching.  Both true statements.

[$tryf4Life]

36 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Bad loss. Griffin Jax is a good reliever but a lousy closer. He stunk at it last year and he stinking at it this year. He's a good seventh and eighth inning reliever and that's where he should stay. Whatever it is a closer needs to be successful in high stress situations he just doesn't have.

I think that the best closers types on this roster are Brock Stewart and Louie Varland. Send Bowers to the DFA wire or send Funderburk down, call up SWR to take the fifth spot in the rotation and put Louie in the bullpen to close.

I have no solutions to offer for this lineup other than Miranda, Jeffers, and Martin should be playing every day and perhaps hitting next to each other. They are the only three that don't look completely overmatched at the plate with the possible exception of Julien, and Margot can at least draw the occasional walk. Any thought that Miranda doesn't field well enough to play needs to go out the window because he's one of the few guys who seems to be able to actually hit major league pitching. If it were up to me, I would strongly consider putting out a lineup for the next game that went Martin, Julian, Jeffers, Miranda, Buxton, Margot, and it doesn't really matter after that because all the rest of them stink.

I’d move Buxton down and take Castro out. I’d really start to value OB and contact at this point if I were Rocco. 

[Whitey333]

Twins were outed in this series.  They were out pitched, out hit, out homered, out hustled, out played, and out managed.  Other than that they were great.

[LastOnePicked]

I don't know how Baltimore got to be so good. I've been reliably told that organizational rebuilds don't work.

[Brandon27]

Just overall this team needs new ownership that willing to spend money,redo the front office all way to player development cause who is ever in charge in that department needs to be shown the door never come back they suck at their job

[Doctor Gast]

11 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

I don't know how Baltimore got to be so good. I've been reliably told that organizational rebuilds don't work.

The key is good player evaluations & development, which many organizations don't do well, rebuild or not. 

[MMMordabito]

4 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

The key is good player evaluations & development, which many organizations don't do well, rebuild or not. 

This exactly,

Both Baltimore and Minnesota evaluated Jorge Lopez, Yennier Cano, Cade Povich and Tyler Wells. Minnesota also evaluated Lewis Thorpe.

Baltimore went 4-4.  Minnesota went 0-5.

[Doctor Gast]

Great job by Lopez, a game we should have won. A pitcher that our LH hitters should have unloaded on! Lack of clutch hitting or even hitting period! 

[OvertheHill]

28 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Twins were outed in this series.  They were out pitched, out hit, out homered, out hustled, out played, and out managed.  Other than that they were great.

There isn’t really much else to say. I didn’t expect them to go and win this series at Baltimore, but overall they don’t even resemble a serious Major League Baseball team, starting at the top. Their off-season made the team worse/less resilient while Cleveland, Detroit and even KC could honestly say they improved. I’m just looking to stay ahead of Chicago at this point. 

I’m done hearing about bad luck and injuries; they are a 4th place team in a lousy division. The managers effectiveness is commensurate with the rest of the organization. If he were let go it’s not like there would be teams lining up to hire him. But he does the bidding of the FO, so he’s golden as long as there’s no changes there. 

[Jocko87]

Who's got duty on the "Does Griffen Jax need time at Cedar Rapids to work on his composure" article duty tonight? Tomorrow, on Twins Daily!

[Vanimal46]

The scary thing is the Twins may not be able to feast on weak AL Central opponents that we’ve grown accustomed to in the last 5-10 years. The summer months get long when your favorite baseball team stinks. 

[1985Fan]

Twins led the league in SO last year. Instead of changing the hitting coaches they opted to bring in Santana and Margot? Not a good plan. As has been said here by others, this FO doesn’t like to admit mistakes, so don’t expect coaching changes anytime soon. 
There is always the notion that pitchers are ahead of hitters early in the season, but that hasn’t slowed down Twins opponents. The coach should be able to help these guys make simple adjustments and improve. Seems like a lot of the hitters trying to pull low/outside pitches that they’re pulling off of and striking out. 
Then you have the brilliant manager. Pulling López at 87 pitches?! This team badly needed to salvage a win. That’s supposed to be the job of the ace: stop the losing streak! Rocco wants to save him for something else.
It’s terrible to watch these futile hitters waste good pitching performances, or the fielders kick the ball around, or good pitchers make an occasional mistake and blow it. Bottom line is Twins are going to have to score more than two runs a game! Tom Kelley used to say that 4 runs should win the game if the pitching and defense were big league caliber. Looks like the Twins have a ways to go.

[wabene]

Hendo can hit, but the arm? Nada.

Doesn't that feel better?

[jkcarew]

Encouraging start by Pablo…and against a legit lineup.

Any scenario that has the Twins surviving and eventually thriving includes Pablo being consistently good. Maybe this is the start of at least that part of it.

[Hubie29]

MLB Power Ranking

#29.  Twins

#30.  Chicago White Sox

[VivaBomboRivera!]

As I was saying...

[mikelink45]

Rocco and the thumb - pull our Lopez because????  We just had a pitcher (not ours) throw a 112 pitch shutout. It would not happen with the Twins.  By the way I think I read on TD that we have the best BP in the majors or close to it - time to revise the rankings. 

Jax is not a closer - I have nothing more to add there.

Julien is not leadoff until he starts to heat up or is he now swinging for the fences?

Buxton is not a number 3 or 4 or 5 of 5 hitter.  Move him down.

I am really discouraged by this game in context with the season so far. 

[Doctor Gast]

2 hours ago, MMMordabito said:

This exactly,

Both Baltimore and Minnesota evaluated Jorge Lopez, Yennier Cano, Cade Povich and Tyler Wells. Minnesota also evaluated Lewis Thorpe.

Baltimore went 4-4.  Minnesota went 0-5.

Bingo

[Loops]

At this rate it is going to be a VERY long season.😒

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Julien is not leadoff until he starts to heat up or is he now swinging for the fences?

 

Do you suppose the hitting coaches are actively trying to do to Julien what they did to Austin Martin and turn him into a power hitter at the expense of contact, or is he just not swinging at strikes? I do not understand how both he and Wallner got so bad, really beyond bad this year so far.

[RpR]

1 minute ago, Verified Member said:

Do you suppose the hitting coaches are actively trying to do to Julien what they did to Austin Martin and turn him into a power hitter at the expense of contact, or is he just not swinging at strikes? I do not understand how both he and Wallner got so bad, really beyond bad this year so far.

The majority of the teams players are beyond bad this year, so far.

[hitterscount]

1 hour ago, Hubie29 said:

MLB Power Ranking

#29.  Twins

#30.  Chicago White Sox

Unfortunately, those rankings are accurate and an indictment on how inept the front office and manager are. If the Pohland's have no interest in fielding a competitive MLB ball team,  please sell... there are a lot of rich people out there that would bring accountability and establish some hope and excitement, instead of the excuses in why payroll needed to be slashed. 

[Fezig]

I don't watch the games because striking out 33% of at-bats is too painful to watch. I do look at highlights (or lowlights) in most summaries and had to re-watch one of the three k's our leadoff hitters showcased today. After my old-school non-sabermetrics viewing, I deduced his bat path went from the top of his left shoe to directly over his right shoulder. I'm pretty sure this path wouldn't even work for shoveling, let alone hitting a 90mph spherical object. Not too mention he walked back to the dugout carrying his shoes because he swung out of them on a two strike count.

I'm pretty sure the leadoff hitter is supposed to be a catalyst for the team. In the Twins case, it's proving true.

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, Verified Member said:

Do you suppose the hitting coaches are actively trying to do to Julien what they did to Austin Martin and turn him into a power hitter at the expense of contact, or is he just not swinging at strikes? I do not understand how both he and Wallner got so bad, really beyond bad this year so far.

Julien is missing fastballs over the plate

[jimbo92107]

My brother told me a guy he knows said, "Twins aren't that bad. They just need some better pitchers and hitters."

Not sure how to reply to that...